In Spain, the three wise men no longer bring coal

On January 6, it is traditional that Spanish children receive gifts from the three wise men, a day far more anticipated than the arrival of Santa Claus. The most feared gift used to be coal, a sign that the children had behaved badly over the past year. Coal is also a bad sign for the environment, because it’s the largest source of CO2 to the atmosphere and a major driver of global warming. But happily in Spain, things are changing.

In the morning of the three wise men, while children all over Spain opened their gifts and thousands of new electronic gadgets were plugged into the grid, none of the nation’s electricity was coming from coal. Over the whole day, three-quarters of Spain’s electricity was met from renewable sources while coal barely reached 4% of supply.

Annual data from Red Electrica, a major Spanish power transmission company, confirms the unstoppable rise of clean energies in Spain. In 2010, renewables supplied 35% of all Spain’s electricity, higher than ever before, and even though overall power consumption was higher than 2009. Wind power alone supplied 16%, twice as much power as coal and on very windy days, wind power peaked at over half the national power consumption.

The great beneficiary of increased renewable supply was the environment. Thanks to renewables, coal-fired power dropped by 34% last year and gas-fired power dropped 17%, with 22 gas projects being cancelled. This meant CO2 emissions from Spain’s power system fell by 20% last year. Our renewables were also able to cover for nuclear power plant failures, incluiding those from the great advocate of nuclear energy, France. For the first time, France became a net importer of electricity from Spain, something only possible thanks to renewables.

The economic benefits of Spain’s renewables are also impressive. As shown in this report by the Spanish Association of Renewable Energy Producers, renewables made electricity production cheaper, reducing total cost by € 4,830 million in 2009 (more than covering the payments received in the feed-in tariff incentive program), they contributed € 8,525 million to national GDP and were worth €3,042 million in exports. Despite the government making cuts to the highly-successful feed-in tariff incentive (the cuts costing Spain 20,000 jobs) renewables still provide jobs for 100,000 people in Spain.

So we can be happy that Spain’s target of 30% of electricity from renewables in 2010 has been easily surpassed. In fact, the 2020 target from Spanish Parliament of 35.5% power from renewables has almost been reached already, showing our political representatives’ lack of vision, or their caving in to lobbying from utilities and the whole dirty energy sector, who don’t want the impressive success of renewables to continue.

In Greenpeace we shall work in 2011 for not just Spain, but around the world, to acknowledge that the horizon that we must point to is no other than 100% renewable.

The use of sophisticated software systems for coal mining (thermal coal, steam coal and metallurgical coal) that is mostly burnt for power generation and steel production and adds to the greenhouse effect is valid for western countries who may allocate resources and funds to alternative and more greener sources of power. Some of the alternatives may be "safer" than the traditional mines. Unfortunately, coal reports and coal statistics show developing economies are more likely to increase their use of thermal coal & metallurgical coal in coming years because of its affordability and to meet increasing demands for electricity and steel. Whether they will embrace and utilise sophisticated software systems that no doubt add to the cost of production is yet to be seen. Cherry of www.coalportal.com

The investment into alternative power generating technologies such as nuclear energy may need to be measured against the potential cost when things tu...

The investment into alternative power generating technologies such as nuclear energy may need to be measured against the potential cost when things turn against you as unfortunately happened this year in Japan. The use of thermal coal (steam coal) that is mostly burnt for power generation may be valid for other countries who may not be able to allocate resources and funds to alternative and more greener sources of power. Coal newsletters and coal statistics show developing economies are more likely to increase their investment into & their use of thermal coal & metallurgical coal in coming years because of coal's affordability and ability to quickly meet increasing demands for electricity and steel. www.coalportal.com